Between Floors

I just wanted the buzzing of the alarm to stop.

The night had started out with so much promise. I had no idea how it’d turned into such a nightmare.

Jeremy picked me up for a night in the city. He said it’d be an evening of good food, drinks, and dancing. The man knew the route to my heart. It was only three months until our wedding, and he still treated me as if we were only in the first weeks of our relationship.

I couldn’t believe he was gone now.

We’d been walking down the street when we heard the first screams. At first, I thought it was just some teenagers acting like assholes. You always hear stories of punk asshole kids in the city doing stupid shit.

Then I saw the girl.

She was maybe sixteen and dressed like some scene kid in a bad movie. She would have been pretty, maybe even gorgeous, if not for the blood. It seeped from every opening on her head. Ears, eyes, nose, and mouth dribbled copious amounts of red-brown fluid. She moved in a jerky almost spasmatic rhythm, and she growled as her teeth slammed open and shut over and over.

She was hunting, and it didn’t take long for her to find prey.

The elderly couple never even noticed her until she was on them. Biting, clawing, and screaming like an animal the man and woman were both on the ground before I could even register what was happening. She tore into them until they stopped fighting and then turned her eyes on the other people on the street.

All hell broke loose as people ran away in every direction screaming for their lives.

“Run!” Jeremy yelled grabbing my hand and dragging me toward the open doors of the Marriot hotel we’d been passing. The door was unmanned, and the light from the interior was inviting. As we entered, I saw the elderly man and woman spring to their feet and join the girl in her hunt. Then we were inside and safe.

Or so we thought.

The man in the ripped, expensive suit and covered in blood followed us through the open doors just as we thought we were safe. He roared and was on Jeremy like a wild animal. My man was strong and was able to knock the older man down despite his rage-fueled strength. For a second, one glorious second, I really thought this would be the last danger and that Jeremy could defeat this monster.

Then the horde arrived. Hundreds of them filled the street in front of the hotel. If I’d had time to think I would have realized they’d been the source of the first screams I’d heard before the girl arrived and attacked the old couple. More than a dozen of the running monster people peeled off from the main group and made for the entrance to the hotel.

“Alyssa run, the elevator!” Jeremy yelled indicating the open elevator door.

I’m ashamed to admit I never looked back. I just ran with everything I had and cleared the threshold of the elevator before I even knew I’d started running. I turned and was rewarded with a nightmare sight—my man fight and losing against a dozen crazed individuals.

“Hit the button!” he screamed right before a young man in a hockey jersey bit a chunk out of his shoulder.

I pushed the button for the top floor and the doors shut.

The elevator started rising, and that was when I realized the doors would open, and I would have to get out. I would have to leave the safety of the box. So I did the only thing I could, I pulled the emergency stop button, and that was when the buzzing started.

That’d been hours ago, at least, I thought it had been because I’d lost my phone somewhere in the chaos. Now I would give anything for the buzzing to stop. I was about to push the button in and take my chances with the monsters outside when I noticed the toggle switch beneath the button, the one reading “Silence Alarm.”

I flipped it.

The buzzing was finally gone only to be replaced by the screeching and pounding of the insane people outside of, and below, the elevator car. With several inches of steel and at least two floors between myself and them, the sounds were blessedly muffled and distant compared to the emergency stop alarm. I had time to consider my options. I had time to breathe and rest. I had time to realize I was all alone and nobody was coming for me because nobody knew I was trapped in this box.

Jeremy was out there.

Those people, the horrible bleeding people, were out there.

Jeremy was probably one of them now if he was unlucky and dead if he was lucky.

I missed Jeremy.

I didn’t want to be trapped in this fucking elevator.

Minutes, hours, maybe even days passed. The only way I had to judge time without my phone was by how thirsty I was. I would have given my left hand to drink the foulest nastiest water around, and yes I mean if I could have peed I’d have drunk it.

I couldn't stay in the elevator any longer.

Getting shakily to my feet I did my best to straighten my dress and make myself look as presentable as I could for my man. Maybe everything would be alright. Maybe when the door opened Jeremy would be waiting for me on the other side. Maybe this has all been a bad dream and when I wake up the world would be normal, and the sun would be shining.

I put on my best smile, and I pushed the button.

The End